20 Incredible Data Center Statistics in 2025

Have you watched a musical? If you have, you know how important the backstage crew is — they set the stage while the performers own it. I like to think of data centers as the backstage crew for your favorite streaming, social media, and online gaming platforms. Without them, there wouldn’t be a “show.”

Thanks to data centers, we don’t have to maintain our own hardware. In my opinion, they are the backbone of the internet! Here are 20 data center statistics that prove just how important they are to the online world.

On a technical level, data centers are massive, high-tech warehouses that are filled with high-performance servers, data storage devices, and networking equipment. There are roughly 12,000 of them in the world.^1,2 Let me emphasize just how important these data centers are.

Without them, cloud storage would vanish — you’d have to rely on local hard drives. And sure, that’s manageable, but you wouldn’t be able to share files online, and you know what that means — bye-bye work from home! Blockbuster might make a comeback, but social media would cease to exist, and you’d have to shop offline.

Basically, we’d be in the 1990s all over again. That would be cool in a way, but nah, I like things as they are!

Every market has at least one key player, and it doesn’t take a genius to guess which country is the kingpin of the data center industry. With 5,426 data centers and a market share of around 45%, the U.S. influences trends, sets standards, and drives a gigantic portion of the industry’s growth.

You might be surprised to discover how many (or rather how few) data centers the world’s second-largest data center hub has. Any guesses? Alright, let’s cut the dramatization. It’s Germany. The country has more than 90% fewer data centers, with just 529.

The UK (523), China (449), and France (322) also made the top five list.²

Speaking of data center hubs, the Northern Virginia region, AKA the “Data Center Alley,” is the data center hub of not only the U.S. but also the world, with facilities around Loudoun County, Prince William County, and Fairfax County (London ranks second). It has an inventory of more than 2,500 MW, which is crazy!

In other words, the region has 2,500+ MW of electricity capacity dedicated to powering its data centers. In comparison, London’s reported inventory is less than half of that.³ Levels.

It’ll be interesting to see if, or rather when, investors shift their focus to alternative American markets where the total cost of ownership is considerably lower. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (Texas), Atlanta (Georgia), Phoenix (Arizona), Columbus (Ohio), and Raleigh-Durham (North Carolina) are locations worth keeping an eye on.

The previous data center statistic got me thinking: “Which is the most expensive market for data center construction?” I kid you not, Tokyo came to mind almost immediately. I fell in love with Japan after watching “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.”

Tokyo is also noteworthy for being the world’s most expensive market in which to construct data centers (ouch). The cost per watt is an astonishing $14.3. Singapore is a close second at $13.8 per watt.⁴

Data centers are essential, I can’t deny that (no one can), but the amount of electricity they consume worries me, especially since we haven’t wholly embraced renewable energy resources.

A large data center, for example, uses the energy equivalent of powering 750,000 regular U.S. households. That’s crazy if you really think about it. Now, this data center stat is even more damning. American-based data centers could consume as much as 9% of the electricity generated within the country by 2030.

ChatGPT is a leading contributor to that stat. Its searches use up around 10 times more electricity than Google searches.⁵

As long as we switch to all-green energy to power data center facilities, I don’t mind the amount of electricity they consume. It’s time we act.

Artificial intelligence (AI) should be your new best friend, especially if you’re a student. But don’t use it to plagiarize assignments. You have to learn to earn big! Complex AI tools like ChatGPT process a ton of data daily and consume a lot of computational power.

To put it into perspective, a typical AI system can use tens of thousands of kWh in a matter of days — I’m not surprised AI will use an estimated 20% of global data center capacity by 2028.⁶ And hey, I know you’re well-mannered, but stop saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT.

It costs the company tens of millions of dollars in electricity and is straight up pointless — stick to the point.⁷ I wonder how much electricity Grok or Gemini consume…

I’ve documented the astronomical amounts of energy data centers consume. Switching to green energy is necessary, but it solves only half the problem. The efficiency of data center equipment is a matter of concern. Let me make it easier for you to understand my point.

You can measure the efficiency of a data center’s energy usage by calculating its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratio. This compares the total power used by the facility to the energy used by the computing infrastructure alone. The lower the ratio, the better (it indicates minimal energy is being spent on non-IT infrastructure like equipment cooling and facility lighting).

Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t all that great. The average annual PUE at the largest data center of major data center operators was reported at 1.56 in 2024. Given that this figure was 1.55 in 2022 and 1.58 in 2023, we need to find better ways to lower the ratio — techniques like cooling optimization, efficient power distribution, and regular maintenance could help.⁸

Ironically, by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize energy usage, top-tier data center facilities could achieve a PUE between 1.1 and 1.2. Spend money to save money, folks.

Does size really matter? It sure does on a basketball court, an American football field, and in the world of data centers! It’s simple math, really. A large data center can house more computing equipment than a smaller one can, which means it should technically offer more capacity.

The average size of a data center is around 100,000 square feet — and the following data centers comfortably breach this mark.

Located in Hohhot, China, the China Telecom Cloud Computing Inner Mongolia Information Park (good luck memorizing the name!) is the world’s largest data center, spread across a mammoth 10.76 million sq ft.

The Switch TAHOE RENO data center in Nevada is the world’s second-largest data center — it covers 7.2 million sq ft. A close third, the China Mobile data center in Hohhot occupies around 7 million sq ft.^9,10

While the U.S. is the kingpin of the global data center industry, you might be wondering who the kingpin of the American market is. Well, there are two big names: Digital Realty and Equinix. Texas-based Digital Realty isn’t just limited to American soil — it has a global data center footprint, with more than 300 data centers.

The data center operator has facilities in 22 metros in North America and South America, 24 in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, and nine in the Asia Pacific region.¹¹

If you do your part to be eco-friendly, you’ll be happy to know the data center operator has more “certified green buildings” than anyone else and is an industry leader in efficiency, renewables, and waste reduction.

Equinix is just as badass as Digital Realty, with more than 260 International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers to its name.⁷ These facilities are located in 74 major global metros and facilitate more than 10,000 customers, including 310+ Fortune 500 companies (like Microsoft, Amazon, and Walmart).

While it claims to offer an unrivaled uptime guarantee of 99.999%, I don’t buy it — you should take it for a test drive, just in case.¹² And yes, like Digital Realty, Equinix is committed to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency.

When’s the last time you watched a reel or posted a Snap? The computers in data centers store all the stuff you see and use online. This means you should be thanking data center service providers for your daily dose of social media. I’ve already given you a lecture on this, so I’ll leave it at that. Let’s talk about revenue.

Given how the global data center market has its hand in every honeypot, I’m not surprised it’s a multibillion-dollar industry. And I mean hundreds of billions.

It’s time to reveal the numbers. The global data center market is expected to rake in more than $452 billion in 2025 (by the end of the calendar year). This represents an increase of around $108 billion in one year! Phew.

The industry is estimated to grow at a steady CAGR of 8.37%, which means revenue should cross $624 billion by 2029.¹³

If you have a lot of land and a few million (legitimate) dollars lying around, now’s the perfect time to get into the data center business! Or, if you’re not into building one, you could always invest in a data center company — just make sure to do your own research.

Given the sheer size of the data center market in the U.S., I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night without exploring the projected revenue of the market in 2025. And yes, it’s as grand as you might expect — the United States is expected to yield revenue of more than $137 billion in 2025.

That means the United States will account for around 30% of global data center revenue in 2025. Since the USA “owns” 45% of the market, this isn’t surprising. I like the guessing game, and you know where I’m heading with this: Who do you think are the runners-up? It’s China, with a forecasted revenue of approximately $106 billion in 2025.

China has “just” 449 data centers, compared to the USA’s 5,426 — talk about value for money. Of course, two of the three largest data centers in the world are in China, so that explains things!^2,13,14

I promise you, we’re coming to the end of revenue-based stats (just two more after this one)! Your landlord isn’t the only one who earns money from rent. Data center operators, AKA “digital landlords,” rent out network infrastructure and server and data storage space.

The network infrastructure segment is like its golden goose — it’s predicted to generate more than $253 billion in 2025.

To put it into perspective, this segment alone will account for almost 56% of the market, as the other two segments combined (servers and storage systems) are forecasted to bring in around $200 million in 2025.¹³

Whenever I take a picture, it’s automatically backed up to iCloud storage. If you aren’t an iPhone user, I’m pretty sure you’ve used Google Drive at some point — I use it every day. While these everyday cloud services aren’t technically considered cloud IT infrastructure, they definitely leverage it.

My point is, cloud infrastructure is everywhere — so much so that it’s a major driver of annual IT spending. According to estimates, more than $130 billion will be spent on it in 2026.¹⁵

It includes abstracted (infrastructure with simplified interfaces) hardware, storage, virtualization, and network resources.

When you put these components together — like a puzzle — you get a complete cloud computing platform, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Do you prefer AWS or GCP? For me, it’s Google Cloud all the way!

If we think of a modern data center as a puzzle, Dell helps complete it, as it’s one of the core suppliers of top-tier server, storage, and networking components.

My first laptop was a Dell system, so the company has a special place in my heart (I literally wrote my first love letter on it — and before you judge me, I was just a child!). I’m not the only one who has fond memories of Dell. The multinational technology company is a crowd favorite, having earned net revenue of approximately $88.43 billion in fiscal year 2024.¹⁶

While Dell develops outstanding computer systems (I can attest to it), it’s particularly sought-after for its cloud IT infrastructure and storage systems (surprise surprise, it’s the world’s leading vendor).

Its Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), the division behind these enterprise offerings, generated around $33.89 billion in the same fiscal year.¹⁷

I have a question for you. Would you rather be like Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? It’s Bezos for me — Amazon is low-key essential for most people. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the undisputed leader of the cloud IT services market.

It had a grasp on 33% of the market in the fourth quarter of 2024.⁶ Microsoft was a distant second, commanding 20% of the market share (side note: market share and revenue aren’t always directly correlated). Google Cloud completed the top three list, with a share of 10%.

All told, the tech goliaths accounted for 63% of total market spend in the final quarter of 2024.¹⁸

This is the last revenue-related data center statistic — I promise. I’m fascinated by artificial intelligence (and I assume so are you). I took Grok for a spin a month ago and was amazed by its capabilities.

Simply put, AI is no longer a futuristic thing. We’re living in an AI-powered world. I mean, I’m literally carrying it in my pocket — my iPhone 15 Pro has the A17 Pro chip.

Generative AI applications like ChatGPT, Grok, and Perplexity (you should try it) are reshaping businesses — and the AI chip market is walking hand-in-hand with the demand for these technologies across industries.

To put it into perspective, the market was valued at around $65 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $92 billion in 2025. That’s a growth of around 41%! Insane.¹⁹

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone or laptop, make sure it has an AI chip. Do you know who’s leading the AI chip race? If you read the news, you already know the answer: Nvidia. It’s part of the elite “Tech Three Trillion Club,” right alongside Apple and Microsoft.

What do data centers, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrencies have in common? They consume a LOT of electricity.

You might be wondering: “Aren’t cryptocurrencies just digital money you can buy on the internet?” Well, yes. I’m not going to bore you with details, but there are basically two “types” of cryptos: Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS).

PoW cryptos, like Bitcoin, are digitally mined (kind of like gold). They require massive computing power, which means sky-high electricity use. PoS cryptos, such as Ethereum (fun fact: it used to be a PoW crypto), on the other hand, are much more energy-efficient.

Anyway, getting back to the point — data centers, AI, and cryptos are forecasted to consume between 620 and 1,050 terawatt (TWh) hours of electricity in 2026.²⁰ That’s enough to power Germany and France combined… We seriously need to go green!

Let’s talk about renewable energy, shall we? Australians are known for being friendly, easygoing, and humorous. Though when it comes to cricket and rugby, their players are fierce competitors and don’t hold back with their words!

That said, I’d argue Australian data center operators are anything but laid-back when it comes to curbing their carbon footprint.

Around 28% of the power capacity of Australian data centers comes from green or renewable resources.²¹

And that’s not all — approximately 40% of all electricity consumed in the country (or the continent — take your pick) is from renewable sources!²²

If you live where the sun shines bright, invest in solar panels — save the planet, with all your might.

Latin America takes things one step further. I associate Latin America with European football and delicious food. The region also happens to be the greatest advocate of green energy.

Move aside Australia, it’s Latin America that deserves the loudest round of applause — more than 60% of power capacity from Latin American data centers comes from renewable energy.²¹

You already know the environmental impact of data centers (revisit the electricity consumption stat in the U.S.) data center operators need to shift toward renewable or environment-friendly energy sources.

After all, energy sustainability is the need of the hour. We’re quickly exhausting our renewable energy resources and harming the environment in the process.

If we don’t turn to more sustainable solutions, future generations will face the wrath of our greed and ignorance (I’m talking about mankind since the late 18th century — the Industrial Revolution sure was something).

Some of the major data center operators I mentioned earlier, such as Digital Realty, Equinix, and AWS, are already taking steps toward this. The future of data centers must be green.

While nuclear power isn’t non-renewable, it’s environmentally sustainable. That’s why market leaders like AWS are turning toward it.

1. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-top-25-countries-with-the-most-data-centers/
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228433/data-centers-worldwide-by-country/
3. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1456836/leading-data-center-markets-by-inventory/
4. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106621/global-data-center-markets-ranked-by-cost-of-construction/
5. https://www.technology.org/2024/06/04/data-centers-predicted-to-consume-9-of-us-electricity-by-2030/
6. https://blog.se.com/datacenter/2024/09/26/solving-ai-growing-pains-edge-modular-data-centers/
7. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/etimes/trending/openai-ceo-sam-altman-claimed-saying-please-and-thank-you-to-chatgpt-is-wasting-millions-of-dollars-heres-why/articleshow/120463875.cms/
8. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1229367/data-center-average-annual-pue-worldwide/
9. https://techjury.net/blog/data-center-statistics/
10. https://worldstopdatacenters.com/china-telecom-inner-mongolia-information-park/
11. https://www.digitalrealty.com/data-centers/
12. https://www.equinix.com/data-centers/
13. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/data-center/worldwide/
14. https://www.statista.com/outlook/tmo/data-center/china/
15. https://www.statista.com/statistics/503686/worldwide-cloud-it-infrastructure-market-spending/
16. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264911/dells-net-revenue-since-1996/
17. https://www.statista.com/statistics/992556/dell-revenue-by-segment/
18. https://www.statista.com/statistics/967365/worldwide-cloud-infrastructure-services-market-share-vendor/
19. https://www.statista.com/statistics/314596/total-data-center-systems-worldwide-spending-forecast/
20. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1462943/global-electricity-demand-from-data-centers-and-crypto-forecast/
21. https://brightlio.com/data-center-stats/
22. https://cleanenergycouncil.org.au/news-resources/clean-energy-australia-2024-report/